Servant of God, Fr. John Hardon SJ talks about the essence of marriage. 1)It’s indissolubility 2)Its unity (husband and wife being one flesh.) Can you briefly explain these two aspects of the essence of marriage?

Marriage is the lifelong union of man and woman ordered toward the generation and education of offspring. Both natural marriage and the sacrament of marriage of indissoluble, however, natural marriage admits of some limits to the indissolubility. A ratum et consummatum sacrament of marriage is dissolved only by death.

The union of husband and wife is not solely or primarily the union of flesh in the marriage act. They are united in their lives, in their hearts and minds, in true spiritual love, and in that particular expression of love called the natural conjugal act. The marriage act has three good moral objects: marital, unitive and procreative.

The marital meaning is not only that the persons who have relations must be married, but also the fact that this act expresses the marriage and strengthens the marriage. The unitive meaning is the natural act itself, as an expression of the love which unites the couple spiritually. So the unitive meaning has a spiritual aspect and a physical aspect. The procreative meaning is the ordering of the natural act toward its procreative finality, but also the openness of the couple to new life, if such should be the will of God.